New chapter in Wichita’s crab saga unfolds as restaurant relocates from crumbling building
Another chapter in the bizarre story that started in 2018 when the first of two Kansas City crab restaurants expanded into Wichita has just been written, but this one is slightly less fishy than the ones that preceded it.
Crazy Crab Seafood, the restaurant that originally opened in spring 2019 in the deteriorating former Chi-Chi’s building on the southwest corner of Taft and West streets, has relocated and just reopened. It’s now in a much tidier building at 779 N. West St. that previously housed Corky’s Pub & Grub, which closed in 2016 after less than a year in business.
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Crazy Crab, which also has a restaurant in Kansas City and specializes in boiled and fried seafood, closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened.
Its building, which had also been home to a string of Chinese buffet restaurants over the years, was already crumbling when the Crazy Crab opened there a year ago. But not long ago — shortly after the Eagle broke the news that the building at 511 S. West St. would be demolished to make way for a new Casey’s General Store — a new Crazy Crab sign appeared on the former Corky’s building, which sits 1.5 miles directly north of the original spot.
An employee at the new Crazy Crab said the restaurant is open just for to-go orders for now. Its hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; and 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. Inside, there’s new flooring and lots of seating that can eventually be used.
The strange part: The new Crazy Crab space is directly across the street from where onetime competitor Krab Kingz operated before closing earlier this year. It was at 784 N. West St., and its former space is still vacant.
You might remember that when Crazy Crab first opened, I reported that its owners had chosen a spot on the same street as Krab Kingz, just as it had in Kansas City, when both restaurants opened within a short amount of time on the same block of Broadway in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, later getting into bit of a Facebook dust-up. Both restaurants are still operating in Kansas City.
You might also recall the strange story I reported in September about how Wichita’s Krab Kingz came to its demise in April of this year. The tale was all documented on the second episode of the Showtime docu-series “Love Fraud,” which was released in late August.
In short, owner Karla Neumann-Campbell said she met Richard Scott Smith in Kansas City, where he persuaded her to leave her marriage, move to Wichita and foot the bill to open Wichita’s Krab Kingz. But a month later, he split, leaving Campbell with the bills. The series profiled several women who had similar encounters with Smith, a serial online dater who was married to at least 10 women, some of them simultaneously.
To reach the new Crazy Crab or place an order, call 316-352-7005. And stay tuned for the next chapter in the saga, likely titled “The Day the Chi-Chi’s building finally fell.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 12:57 PM.
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